The past couple of my films have included some quirky props.
My most recent short, Pie Money, required over one hundred pies on set of the Pie Factory. After a slightly confused employee from Tesco delivered the pies to my house, I kept them refrigerated in my house for a number of days and it was good to get some use out of them. The shoot day also fell on a rare occasion where my stock of food for the crew and cast was running slightly low, so they were thankful that the large number of fresh Tesco Pies were on set –incorporating food into your script works a treat when saving money on catering.
The crew on set of Pie Money, camera-assistant Simon (left) can almost taste those pies.
Some other props were used in a display for the Staffordshire University Degree Show in June 2012. Myself and a few other students set up the shoot studio like a museum to attract interest to our films, which were showing in a theatre across the road.
Staffordhire University's Degree Show features props and costumes from Pie Money.
Dawid and Dominik also included various props and costumes that I found hard to get rid of – especially the large number of tracksuits worn by Victor Ptak and Barnaby Picton. I intended to eBay the clothes, but the last time I saw these tracksuits they were in my parents house. And I know my Dad considered using them for the gardening.
Accordions and tracksuits being used in Dawid and Dominik.
The two red accordions were kindly lent to me by my father, and they got back safely to him in one piece. The Staffordshire Accordion Society lent the black accordion to me, and then asked for it to be donated to the Staffordshire University Props Store.
The burgers and chips eaten by the actors fifty seconds into the film were provided by a local takeaway, and Victor and Barnaby went through two burgers each – again, this meant more sandwiches from the catering for me.
Barnaby Picton in Dawid and Dominik.
And finally, the book Menopause: The Women’s View was taken out of my university library the night before the shoot. I heard stories of my DOPs having a read during the lunch break, but that’s speculation.
Dawid and Dominik is currently showing on my WebTv, which will be featuring Pie Money in January.
